Rugby signs Olympics agreement
Published Thursday 4th February 10
People in Rugby will have more involvement in the 2012 Olympics after the borough council signed up to a county-wide agreement.
This agreement, signed with the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership, means that Rugby should benefit from the Olympic Games and have more involvement in the preparations for the event.
Olympian David Moorcroft, ambassador for Coventry and Warwickshire, and Tom Clift, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Manager visited Rugby Town Hall on Tuesday to present the benefits of the Partnership to Rugby and to show the work they have already carried out.
One of the Partnership's ideas is creating Community Games for people to take part in and enjoy, and they also want a regional campaign, 'People Dancing' to encourage people to dance due to its major involvement in the Olympic Games.
The Partnership believe that dancing is a great sport due to the physical and mental aspects of performance, and it is also a strong sport for both boys and girls and it is popular in the opening and closing ceremonies of the games.
Following from this aspect they have also came up with the idea of a Year 7 dance festival of sport. This evolved from their 12 for 12 campaign due to the age of the children and the year of the Olympics Games. They feel that this would be a good way to encourage the youth to dance and get involved in these sorts of activities they wouldn't normally do, after all dance is exceptionally rare amongst young boys.
On a local level, the Partnership has six main projects on how to encourage and gain enthusiasm about the games. They want to motivate the people of Coventry and Warwickshire to take part in sport and get involved in the Olympics in any way possible.
They are trying to gather up any Olympic legends that were born, bred and raised in the Warwickshire area, who would like to inspire youngsters into getting motivated about sport, and to increase the health and athleticism of the generation to come. They have already uncovered around 106 athletes who have joined the movement.
They are also hoping for Carnivals or Festivals such as school fetes and other public displays to foster an Olympic theme. And the Partnership themselves have already hosted events, such as the Godiva Festival of 2009 and the ongoing 'People Dancing' campaign.
They hope to focus on the ethos of the Olympics' multi-cultural nature, and the joy it brings to those competing and those spectating. They want to incorporate this with their idea of a Coventry and Warwickshire team, and they want to encourage local teams to allow free trials of their sports to encourage more people to take part, have fun and keep fit, and to even perhaps advance later into Team GB.
The partnership also wants to make links with an African nation and offer training facilities for their team each year till 2012 and for the region to be part of the Olympic torch relay and pass by Coventry Cathedral, which would be celebrating its Golden Jubilee.
*This news release has been prepared by Lewis Smith, Lawrence Sheriff School, as part of his work experience placement.